Four years ago a family of cat lovers started their own home-based cat and kitten shelter and just days before World Cat Day on Tuesday they rescued their 1000th feline.

The Ferguson family started Blossoms Rescue to help abandoned, sick and stray cats.

One of the shelter’s owners Laura Ferguson said the 1000th cat rescued was an eight-month-old female who had strayed from her home and was rescued on Friday and has since been de-sexed and returned to her family.

“Then we had a littler of seven born [on the weekend] as well so that’s brought us over 1000,” she said.

She said the mother was rescued from a high-kill shelter in the Hawkesbury region.

Miss Ferguson said they preferred to rescue cats and kittens from Orange and the Central West but people come from across Australia to adopt the cats and kittens and there are 10,000 followers on the shelter’s Facebook page.

Recently, two cats, Thelma and Louise left to join their adopted family in Victoria.

She said there are 20 cats and kittens at the shelter now including two kittens that were rescued from Wellington jail and will have eye surgery in Sydney in a couple of weeks.

The two kittens were born without upper-eyelids so in order to pay for the one off surgery Blossoms Rescue is calling for more financial donations to help pay for the surgery, which should save the kittens’ eyes.

The shelter also regularly needs donations because it pays for cats to be de-sexed, wormed, flea treated and have any vet work needed.

The Fergusons have also kept 10 cats as pets that have life-long health issues and were unsuitable for re-homing.